Toys! where should they live?

I've been thinking about all the toys cluttering up the lounge and was wondering where do most of you keep your kids toys? In their bedrooms and bring them downstairs to play, or mostly in the lounge? My boys have plenty of room for toys in their bedrooms but toys seem to migrate downstairs and clutter up the lounge...(they're 3 1/2 and 2 years) I'm not that fussed, just wondering if I should be stricter and make them keep more upstairs to stop the lounge from getting swamped!

My two boys also seem to be doing this on an almost daily basis!! They're 5yo and 2yo. I did a huge clear out just after Christmas, and put most of their toys in their bedrooms. I do somehow seem to have just as many back downstairs again though. Also watching thread with interest!

Most in DS' bedroom but a few things downstairs... lego because otherwise the tiny pieces would get lost. Pens/crayons because I'm not sure I trust him to use them unsupervised, and toys which need input from an adult.

Also we have an extra toy box (just a plastic crate) which lives in the living room and at the end of the day all of the loose toys which belong upstairs get slung in there. He can take toys out of here to play with but when it gets full I take it upstairs and empty them into their proper places.

We have upstairs toys and downstairs ones. A big ottoman toy box upstairs and then we've got one of those ikea units with boxes in it and we tidy the toys away in those before bedtime. It's nice because all toys are accessible to DS but are off the floor when he's gone to bed

95% is in the lounge because we love playing with her and I have arthritis so hard to keep going up and down stairs. We bought an Ikea shelving unit so it does stay tidy. She is nearly 4 and understands about putting stuff away before getting something new out. Her father on the other hand... Her train set is upstairs as there is more space for her to keep the masses of track out ready to play.

Half in the living room, half in DSs room. The key to not feeling they're taking over your personal space: boxes. DS can make as much mess as he wants when he's playing with his toys, but when he's done, stuff has to go back into the boxes. Can also be helpful to print out pictures of what goes in what box, so clearing up is easy (and can also be a fun 'sorting game').

Where do your children play? Most of my DS(3)'s toys are downstairs because that's where he plays. He rarely plays upstairs so upstairs he just has some soft toys, a fey cards and the playmobil he plays with in the bath.

When he's older, they'll start to migrate upstairs.

Agree with lljkk, he has as much right to have his stuff in the living room as we do, so long as it's stored tidily. We've got an old drinks cabinet which we put his toys in, so they're out of sight at night.

All of DS1's toys live in his bedroom, it's mostly lego and DS2 would wreck it and DS3 would eat it.DS2&3 have a big toy chest and some books on a shelf in the front room, the rest is all on shelves and in trofast storage, DS2 chooses what t bring down and it goes back up at bedtime.

The kitchen and the living room. We have plastic drawers for little bitty things - cars, bob the builder sets, octonauts etc. THe rest of the stuff is on the ottoman. There's also a wicker toy box in the living room for dd's stuff.

Dcs are 3 and 1 and I can't wait for the day you can actuallly move in our kitchen again.

DS (4) has toys in the spare room and in his room. We have no toys stored in the living room, he is of course free to bring as much as he wants down to play with but we tidy them up at the end of the day and put them back in their places upstairs. We do this with our own stuff, too - I don't leave my books out in the living room, for example.

We are lucky in that we have space at the moment, if we ever have another child the age gap will be quite big so they will play with different things, so the toy volume will surely increase - if so, some will probably need to go in the living room and we will get a large toy box I guess.

Tubs. One each for for animals, train set, big lego, horses, dollies and their impedimenta, etc. And loads for soft toys. No toys live in the lounge (dining room instead, which has more room anyway) though they can play with them in there if they want. It doesn't take long to put the toys in the right tubs at the end of the day. Of course if you're five being asked to put them away is like being asked to build the pyramids single-handed, but the DTs will get there eventually.

We've got a 5x5 expedit bookcase at what would be the 'dining end' of our living room. The bottom row is those canvas boxes to store all the loose toys, with the next row up for DS's books and the remainder is all ours!

We also have a tall narrow trofast in the adjoining 'back room' which is a play room of sorts.

The Thomas the effing tank engine table that took over the living room in our old house is now in his bedroom so he can get up and play with it in the morning! He's also got a soft ikea toybox which is filled with 'non-frustrating' toys for him to play by himself in the morning before popping through to see us!

We gave up on the dining room and turned it into a playroom. Bought Northcote storage from Great Little Trading Co and everything fits in beautifully. No toys stored in the lounge but they are often played with in the lounge then tidied away again in the playroom. A bucket of soft toys in DS's bedroom but when we tried to put a basket of trains/cars in his bedroom he got upset and said that toys belong in the playroom! Dah!

In the sitting room: books (I think it's important to keep our books together to facilitate the transition to adult books when they become teenagers), DVDs, CDs, jigsaws and board games. In the study: art materials and the toy kitchen. In the dining room: recent artworks. In their bedroom: everything else. The next house will have a playroom and all their toys will then go there (except the books). We tidy up every evening before they go to bed.

Got a massive wooden chest in the lounge - all the toys are in there, apart from most of the soft toys, which live in dd's bedroom. She mostly plays downstairs, and I got sick of carting things up and down.

The only toys that are kept in the sitting room are ds' table and chairs for drawing and a tiny little A4 size basket on a bookcase with a few loose toys in. Everything else is in his bedroom but gets brought into the sitting room/ kitchen/ bathroom etc during the day then put away before bed. I like having clear space in the evening to relax in.

I do like louisianablue's idea of keeping books together though, seems right somehow and may have to have a change around at the weekend.

Making mental notes about storage furniture - trofast and expedit are both IKEA, is that right? And Northcote from GLTC. We are just about to refurbish our family room (play room / guest room) and am looking for inspiration so thanks everyone!

OP - to answer your original question, board games in living room, toys in family room, garden playhouse or bedrooms but can be played with anywhere as long as tidied up at night. Mind you the DDs are 9 and almost 7 now so there is a lot less plastic tat.

My DCs tend to play in the lounge, but I do try to clear all the toys out into what used to be the dining room before it turned into a branch of ToysRUs. However, I do have a light at the end of the tunnel. DD is 9yo and I find that her toys are smaller and tend to live in her bedroom. Most of the stuff that still lives downstairs are the bulky toys for younger children that my 4yo DS plays with.